美国国家公共电台 NPR DHS Inspector General Finds 'Dangerous Overcrowding' In Border Patrol Facilities

 

NOEL KING, HOST:

Detention¹ facilities along the U.S.-Mexico border have been under scrutiny² for the conditions in which migrants are being held. And then yesterday, the inspector³ general of the Homeland Security Department released a striking report. It called out the Border Patrol for dangerous overcrowding in its holding cells, among other things. And this is notable in part because the inspector general is a government watchdog; it is not a partisan⁵ group. It said this requires immediate⁶ attention and action. NPR's John Burnett is on the line with us from Austin, Texas.

Hi, John.

JOHN BURNETT, BYLINE⁷: Morning, Noel.

KING: All right, so this report is short. It's about 16 pages in total. What's in it?

BURNETT: Well, last month, inspectors⁸ visited five Border Patrol stations and two ports of entry in the Rio Grande Valley - that's the southern tip of Texas that has the most illegal crossings. They found hundreds of children had been in jail cells that were totally inappropriate for kids, and they'd been there for more than 72 hours, which is beyond the federal limit. In one instance, they found 50 small kids younger than 7 who'd been in these conditions for over two weeks. They didn't have access to showers. There was no laundry to wash their clothes. Some were not getting hot meals. And remember, we heard the similar horror stories from lawyers who visited these inconsolable children crowded into immigrant holding cells in Clint, Texas.

KING: That's right. We've been hearing these stories about kids. What does the report say about conditions in detention for adults?

BURNETT: Just as bad, if not worse. One group of adults had been in a cell so crowded they described it as standing⁹ room only - for a week. Some were there for more than a month without a shower in their same traveling clothes. They got bologna sandwiches every day, and some folks were getting sick from those. The auditors¹⁰ in the recent report said they were concerned that, quote, "overcrowding and prolonged detention represent an immediate risk to the health and safety" of detainees and DHS agents.

KING: OK, that's really interesting. Why would DHS agents be at risk?

BURNETT: Well, one senior DHS manager described it as a ticking time bomb. The auditors said they had to even cut short their visit to one station because they were afraid they'd cause a riot. Migrants were banging on windows and pointing to their beards to show how long they'd been in there. Some had already attempted to escape - really alarming situation.

KING: John, there has been a public outcry growing over all of this. We had lawmakers down along the border on Monday.

BURNETT: Right.

KING: They reported terrible conditions. What is this all starting to add up to, if anything?

BURNETT: Well, there's a public outcry that's growing, for one thing. I mean, to me, it's on a par⁴ with the outrage¹¹ that we were hearing over the Trump¹² administration's family separation policy last year. Yesterday, there were dozens of protests across the country calling on the administration to close any facility where they keep kids, from these Border Patrol cells to child shelters that they call camps. About 300 people showed up in a park in downtown Austin, where I live.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting) Close the camp. Close the camp. Close the camp.

KING: So DHS under a tremendous amount of pressure. What are they saying?

BURNETT: Well, they say the situation on the southern border is an acute and worsening crisis. And to dramatize this, they pointed¹³ out that in May they were detaining an average of 4,600 people a day across the whole border; that's compared to fewer than 700 people a day two years ago. And they said there's simply no place to put them all. The child shelters are full. ICE detention centers don't have any more beds. But people keep crossing the border, and they back up into the Border Patrol stations. CBP says their facilities are at peak capacity. They've already added a couple of 500-bed tents where the migrants can live, and now they're adding a third.

But this isn't the first time they've been criticized for keeping kids and adults in these awful conditions. In May, the same DHS inspector general described the same kind of overcrowding in Border Patrol cells upriver in El Paso.

KING: NPR's John Burnett in Austin.

John, thanks so much.

BURNETT: It's my pleasure.

1 detention   

n.滞留，停留；拘留，扣留；(教育)留下

参考例句：

• He was kept in detention by the police.他被警察扣留了。
• He was in detention in connection with the bribery affair.他因与贿赂事件有牵连而被拘留了。

2 scrutiny   

n.详细检查，仔细观察

参考例句：

• His work looks all right,but it will not bear scrutiny.他的工作似乎很好，但是经不起仔细检查。
• Few wives in their forties can weather such a scrutiny.很少年过四十的妻子经得起这么仔细的观察。

3 inspector   

n.检查员，监察员，视察员

参考例句：

• The inspector was interested in everything pertaining to the school.视察员对有关学校的一切都感兴趣。
• The inspector was shining a flashlight onto the tickets.查票员打着手电筒查看车票。

4 par   

n.标准，票面价值，平均数量；adj.票面的，平常的，标准的

参考例句：

• Sales of nylon have been below par in recent years.近年来尼龙织品的销售额一直不及以往。
• I don't think his ability is on a par with yours.我认为他的能力不能与你的能力相媲美。

5 partisan   

adj.党派性的；游击队的；n.游击队员；党徒

参考例句：

• In their anger they forget all the partisan quarrels.愤怒之中，他们忘掉一切党派之争。
• The numerous newly created partisan detachments began working slowly towards that region.许多新建的游击队都开始慢慢地向那里移动。

6 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

7 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

8 inspectors   

n.检查员( inspector的名词复数 )；（英国公共汽车或火车上的）查票员；（警察）巡官；检阅官

参考例句：

• They got into the school in the guise of inspectors. 他们假装成视察员进了学校。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Inspectors checked that there was adequate ventilation. 检查员已检查过，通风良好。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

10 auditors   

n.审计员，稽核员( auditor的名词复数 )；（大学课程的）旁听生

参考例句：

• The company has been in litigation with its previous auditors for a full year. 那家公司与前任审计员已打了整整一年的官司。
• a meeting to discuss the annual accounts and the auditors' report thereon 讨论年度报表及其审计报告的会议

11 outrage   

n.暴行，侮辱，愤怒；vt.凌辱，激怒

参考例句：

• When he heard the news he reacted with a sense of outrage.他得悉此事时义愤填膺。
• We should never forget the outrage committed by the Japanese invaders.我们永远都不应该忘记日本侵略者犯下的暴行。

12 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

13 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。